Stanford rapist Brock Turner claims ‘party culture’ made him do it in statement to court

Former Stanford University student Brock Turner, who was sentenced to six months in jail for raping a fellow student, claimed that the “party culture” on campus was at fault.

According to Turner’s statement to sentencing Judge Aaron Persky, which was obtained by ABC News, the former Stanford athlete admitted that he was the “sole proprietor of what happened that night,” but insisted that the victim was a willing participant who seemed to enjoy the assault.

“At no time did it ever occur to me, or did it ever seem that [redacted] was too drunk to know what we were doing. I would not have done anything against anyone’s will,” Turner told the judge. “I swear I never would have done any of this if [redacted] wasn’t willing.”

“My shell and core of who I am as a person is forever broken from this. I am a changed person,” he said in the statement. “At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed.”

Turner said that he hoped to “take what I can from who I was before this situation happened and use it to the best of my abilities moving forward.”

I want to show that people’s lives can be destroyed by drinking and making poor decisions while doing so. One needs to recognize the influence that peer pressure and the attitude of having to fit in can have on someone. One decision has the potential to change your entire life. I know I can impact and change people’s attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student. I want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college lifestyle I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone. But I never ever meant to intentionally hurt [redacted]. My poor decision making and excessive drinking hurt someone that night and I wish I could just take it all back.

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David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.